Three years of researching English neologisms for MED
Magazine have recently prompted us to ask the question: how far do new
English words crop up in other languages? We decided to investigate this
by asking experts in five different languages (Russian, Italian, Dutch,
Polish and Serbian) to look at the influence of English neologisms on
the languages they know, and explore the wider question of how far English
plays a role in the creation of new words in these languages. In this
article we discuss their findings, which reflect not just the international
nature of English, but its potential to mould vocabulary development in
other languages.

Translate or transliterate?

There are a number of ways in which English seems to be
pro-active in extending the vocabulary of other languages. By far the
most common, as one might expect, appears to be where a word of English
origin is adopted but changed morphologically to reflect the norms of
other languages. Sometimes this takes place through straightforward translation,
as in for example the English terms home page and firewall
becoming thuispagina and vuurwal in Dutch. However
much more frequently the English word is adopted and, rather than being
translated, is modified to reflect the spelling conventions of the adoptive
language, a process sometimes referred to as transliteration. The examples
below from modern Serbian serve as an illustration:

Serbian

English

biznis

business

kompjuteri

computers

mobilni telefoni

mobile phones

eko-turizam

eco-tourism

bio-diverzitet

bio-diversity

tierka

teacher (female)

nou hau

know-how

There were many examples of this process in the other
languages our experts looked at, especially in the domain of computing
and the Internet, as one might predict. Among the examples from Russian
are:

The last example is particularly interesting. Instead
of translating 'in my humble opinion' as o-MoeMy
(po-moyemu) and adopting an acronym based on their own language,
i.e.: -M (P-M),
which would be more readily understandable to all Russians, the English
acronym has been taken over directly and made to sound Russian. Above
it the word for phishing has likewise been transliterated directly
from English rather than being based on the Russian word for fishing,
i.e.: pHao
(ribnaya loblya). This kind of transliteration of Internet terminology
is a common phenomenon in other languages too, evidence which confirms
the perception of English as the accepted language of the Internet worldwide.

In Italian also, English words are often adapted
rather than translated. Some examples of Italianisations of recent English
terms are metrosessuale (metrosexual),
tolleranza zero (zero tolerance) and matrimonio lite (marriage
lite). In the last example, the English term lite was retained
despite the fact that anyone who did not recognise its English origins
might find it confusing, since the Italian word lite actually means
'quarrel'. In the field of cosmetics, the term glitterato meaning
'containing glitter' as in gel/bagno schiuma glitterato ('glitter
bath foam') has been directly adapted from English glitter, the
word glitterato not previously existing in Italian. The verb mobbizzare,
(to bully), has its origins in the English noun mobbing. Verbs
are often italianised rather than translated, as in for example cliccare
(to click) and more recently googlare (to carry out an internet
search), adapted from the English verb coinage to google.

Dutch is a language heavily influenced by popular
English culture which readily embraces English words, though here too
there are many examples of modification to reflect Dutch conventions.
For instance, though English uses the prefix e- to refer to online
practices, i.e.: e-mail, e-business, Dutch often uses the
prefix i- e.g.: i-business, partly because it relates to
the internet, but also because the Dutch letter i sounds
exactly like English e. English words assimilated into Dutch are
often turned into solid compounds, so e.g.: spam filter becomes
spamfilter. Some recent English neologisms which have been given
a Dutch spelling include: metroseksueel (metrosexual),
flexitariër (flexitarian),
blogosfeer (blogosphere) and speeddaten (speed-dating).

Though in general the assimilation of English words involves
modifications based on the linguistic norms of the adoptive language,
occasionally English words are modified on the basis of cultural norms.
For instance, the term Chelsea
tractor, a humorous euphemism for a large four-wheel drive vehicle
used domestically, recently crossed over into Dutch as PC Hooft-tractor,
PC
Hooft referring to a fashionable, up-market shopping street in
Amsterdam.

In contrast to the adoption and transliteration of English
words, another process which seems common across the languages we investigated
is the incorporation of English words in terms of form, but not meaning.
In other words, English words are accepted into the vocabulary but are
given a meaning which is unique to the adoptive language and does not
necessarily bear any relation to the original English meaning. Sometimes
the semantic link is clear. In Italian for example, the word fiction
means 'TV series', the word discount is used to describe a cheap
supermarket, and an after-hours is a club which is open all night
long. In Polish, the word billing means 'itemized bill',
and in Dutch, a lunchroom is a café selling sandwiches.
At other times the link is more tenuous, as in Italianlifting,
meaning 'face lift', Polishadapter, meaning 'record player'
and Dutchcoffeeshop, which is a café that doesn't
only sell coffee, but also marijuana. Occasionally, another language's
use of an English word brings with it very specific connotations. For
example, in Dutch, being single strongly implies a conscious
decision not to be in a relationship.

Conversely, languages sometimes adopt English meanings
but apply them to their own forms. So for example the Polish word
warsztat (workshop) has extended its range of meaning to refer
to the educational event known as a workshop, as well as the room full
of tools. The Polish word dokladnie, meaning 'exactly' in
the sense of 'carefully, with attention to detail', has now under the
influence of English taken on the sense of expressing agreement, as in
Yes, exactly! Another common phenomenon is to adopt and extend,
figuratively or otherwise, the original sense of an English word. So for
instance in Serbian, a provajder (provider) is not just
an ISP (internet service provider), but a person from whom you can buy
homemade food or drink, and the verb ulogovati meaning 'to log
on', can also be used to mean 'to get going after waking up'. In Dutch,
shoppen (shopping) describes a recreational pursuit rather than
just the daily humdrum of buying groceries.

A third process which can be observed is the wholesale
adoption of English words with their original form and meaning. The languages
we investigated varied in their tendency to do this, though the terminology
of computing and the Internet is an area where most languages have taken
on at least some forms directly from English. The use of English as a
lingua franca in this domain has meant that terms like web, blog,
Internet, etc. have become pretty much universal.

At one end of the spectrum is a language like Polish,
which during the Communist era was relatively resistant to the influence
of English. Where borrowing has occurred, transliteration has quickly
followed, and this is true even in more recent years, such as the term
bite (in the computing sense) becoming bajt and scanner
becoming skaner. Sometimes English and Polish transliterated forms
co-exist, as in leader/lider and dealer/diler.
More recently however the pace of borrowing has increased, and new borrowings
have often retained their English spelling. Some recent examples include
notebook ('notebook computer'), on-line, overdraft
and DVD. These words are pronounced approximately as in English,
and a Pole without some knowledge of English would not know how to pronounce
them by looking at their written form. In fact the letter v, as
observed in the last two examples, is not a bona fide member of the Polish
alphabet, but is used nonetheless.

At the other end of the spectrum are languages like Italian
which has for some time more readily adopted English words as a complete
package of form and meaning. Recent examples include: WiFi,
nouse,
spim,
bluejacking
and podcasting.
This kind of borrowing is not restricted to technological domains, however.
The 2004 American presidential election saw security
mom join familiar terms such as first lady, soccer mom
and swing voting. Italians with a zest for extreme sports might
now talk about zorbing,
snowrafting or canyoning, and those in search of the right
relationship might participate in a little speed-dating.

One issue to resolve when this kind of borrowing takes
place is the allocation of gender and related articles. When English nouns
are adopted into Italian they are often treated as if they were Italian
words with regard to gender and article conventions, so spim and
zorbing are masculine with article lo (because masculine
words beginning with z or s plus consonant are preceded
by lo). Sometimes gender is assigned on the basis of the gender
of the equivalent Italian word, so il mouse (masculine) and therefore
il nouse, because the Italian equivalent (to 'computer mouse'),
topo, is masculine. Other times however gender assignment seems
more arbitrary. For example, Italians talk about il Web, despite
the fact that the Italian equivalent, la Rete, is feminine.

Among the languages we investigated, Dutch was
at the pinnacle of 'wholesale' borrowing, heavily influenced by popular
English culture through television and film as well as the internet. Modern
Dutch is now peppered with English words. Some recent examples from new
technology include blog, hotspot, notebook (computer),
laptop, ethernet, DVD, WiFi,
phishing,
podcast
and wiki.
Amongst the younger generation in particular, there is the perception
that English words are more trendy and fashionable than their Dutch counterparts.
Glossy magazines like the popular Cosmopolitan often freely substitute
Dutch words with English equivalents, so that e.g.: minaar becomes
lover and ontwerper becomes designer. Dutch has been
so keen to incorporate English that it even seems capable of coining new
'English' words. For instance, the term baby boom, an expression
inspired by the sudden increase in birthrate during the 15 years after
World War II, found its way into Dutch vocabulary as babyboom and
led to the coinage of an antonym, babycrash, a word which makes
perfect sense to English speakers but is yet to be recorded in an English
dictionary.

Across the languages we examined we can therefore identify
three general ways in which English is currently influencing the development
of the lexicon: 1) adaptation (transliteration) of English terms to correspond
to spelling conventions in the adoptive language, 2) adoption of English
words in form which are then given new uses, and 3) 'wholesale' adoption
of new English words both in terms of form and meaning. The latter was
the starting point of our investigations, and it seems there is definite
evidence of English neologisms making their mark in other languages, which
do seem to be borrowing terminology for 21st century concepts that have
largely originated in the English-speaking world.

Equally interesting however are the ways in which the
languages we examined creatively exploit English in conjunction with other
word formation processes. In Serbian for example, a blend of the
English words glamour and panorama has been used in creating
the coinage glamurama as a description of celebrity TV shows. Dutch
has a new blend fairshoppen, derived from the English words fair
trade and shopping. Polish applies its inflectional
principles to English borrowings to create 'hybrid' words like mailem
('by e-mail'). In Dutch, English verbs are borrowed but then conjugated
according to Dutch grammar, so we see forms like crashte as in
Mijn PC crashte. ('My PC crashed.'). Italian combines English
nouns with delexical verbs to formulate expressions like far audience
('to attract a lot of viewers') and essere al top ('to be in good
form').

Our research indicates that English undoubtedly has a
major influence in the vocabulary development of other languages, and
with the Internet now an integral feature of everyday life, the capacity
of English to pollinate other languages can only increase.